I noticed something peculiar while visiting another ward recently. As the young men who had passed the sacramental bread were lining up, they kept trading places. Eventually, as they walked back to the front of the chapel, I realized what they had been doing.
They were lining up in order of their height.
42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
43 Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. (Luke 11:42-44)
In LDS liturgy, the distribution (“passing”) and partaking of the sacramental bread and water, in memory of the Lord’s Last Supper and as a renewal of our baptismal covenant, is central to our Sunday worship. The meeting itself is called “Sacrament meeting.” The prayers used by the Priests to bless the bread and the water are mandated by scripture.
Yet, the details of how the ordinance is administered can be adapted to the particular circumstance. In this case, the setting was a typical American LDS chapel with two aisles and a sacrament table at the front of the room to the side of the podium. The young Deacons, after serving their assigned section of the room, formed two lines, one in each aisle. When the Priests at the table stood, the Deacons carried their trays to the front.
I pointed out the height-based formation to the person seated next to me and whispered, “That is how Pharisee-ism gets started. There is nothing in the scriptures, or in Handbook 2, about lining up by height.” She replied, “But they ARE all wearing white shirts.”
Unsure how her comment was relevant, I told her I’m OK with the white shirts. The sacrament is a priesthood ordinance and many LDS priesthood ordinances involve wearing white. But people tend to forget that while the Handbook says “ties and white shirts are recommended,” the very next sentence says, “they should not be required.”
Asking the Deacons to line up by height is like the silly idea that one should only take the sacrament with your right hand. This bit of Pharisee-ism has been around since 1931, and has been corrected by Apostles more than once, yet the idea still persists among church members.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Mark 7:5-7)
Pharisee-ism develops when someone, perhaps someone with a little authority, suggests (or requires) that we adopt a new formality in our worship. The next thing you know, the Saints have adopted the idea or practice as an essential part of the Gospel. They even develop neat little explanations about why the new rule is important.
The person next to me defended the “line up by height” practice by claiming that the people on “the other side” don’t show enough respect for the sacrament. Surprised by her reference to “sides” in the Church, I responded that those “other people” were not present. Those who do not believe in the ordinance of the sacrament rarely attend sacrament meeting.
But she wasn’t referring to “the other side” as the non-believers. She meant the less zealous. She insisted that they were there but they were “looking at their phones” during the sacrament. I responded that they may have the scriptures on their phone. She replied that she has “seen people playing Pokemon during church.”
This discussion helped me to see some things more clearly. First, some Saints believe those who worship differently or less zealously than they do, even other Latter-day Saints, are lacking in faith. I personally don’t condone playing computer games during church, but I believe we should try not to judge others or see them as less faithful than ourselves.
Second, some people believe over-zealousness in the Church is acceptable because obviously (to them) the opposite would be under-zealousness, (or, in their minds, apostasy). These people are overlooking the middle ground of simple faith.
One does not have to choose between being a Pharisee or an unbeliever. The Pharisees are clearly not the heroes of the New Testament. We should be able to follow the “plainness” of the gospel without creating elaborate rules and rituals that go “beyond the mark.”
14 But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble. (Jacob 4:14)
I believe Pharisee-ism in the Church is based on insecurity. We are uncomfortable with the uncertainties of the world. We don’t trust our own instincts (or, sadly, inspiration from the Holy Ghost) and prefer to be told what to do. We would rather take refuge behind ceremony and outward display than “be anxiously engaged in a good cause” of our “own free will.”
We must do better than this. We must not become the blind, stiff-necked, hypocrites the scriptures have warned us about. As always, we need to awake to the danger and repent.